The Managed metadata service application is a welcome addition to SharePoint 2010 and is one of my favorite Enterprise Content Management features within this release. In this two part series I plan to delve into the configuration of the Metadata Service Application and then finish off with real life examples on utilizing our metadata throughout our SharePoint sites.  So what is the Managed Metadata Service Application all about and what value does it bring over what we had in SharePoint 2007? The Managed Metadata’s  primary purpose is to provide you with a central location to store...

We continue our journey in configuring our SharePoint 2010 farm and today we shift our focus to one of the many exciting new inclusions in SharePoint 2010, “Office Web Apps”.  Office Web Apps was first introduced with SharePoint 2010 and soon after released to the public integrating with Windows Live SkyDrive (currently in beta form) to compete with Google Docs.  Office Web Apps is an online version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote allowing users to access these applications and their respective documents from any Internet connection and most notable web browsers.  For those...

We all have to agree that search plays an integral part of any successful SharePoint deployment and is an area that Microsoft continues to invest in with each new release of SharePoint. Microsoft went as far as acquiring FAST 2 years ago which it now offers as a separate add-on to SharePoint for those willing to invest in high end enterprise search.  In addition to FAST, SharePoint 2010 search comes in a number of flavors each offering their own feature set and capabilities which I have duplicated at the end of this article as an Appendix for convenience. Today we will introduce SharePoint Server...

SharePoint My Sites are commonly referred to as “Facebook for the enterprise” and are personal site collections providing each user with the ability to store private and public information such as documents, pictures, status updates, etc easily and efficiently.  My Sites in SharePoint 2010 takes social enterprise computing to the next level and builds upon what we have come to love in previous versions.  Microsoft saw the need to continue to invest and enhance SharePoint’s social networking capabilities, and as web 2.0 technologies continue to sprawl all over the world wide web, Microsoft have...

I first introduced Service Applications and User Profile Service Synchronization back when SharePoint 2010 was in beta, and as many of you who would have attempted this feat, would have come to realize that there were a couple of known issues, in particular those around utilizing a least privilege model with service accounts.  I’m confident in stating that these issues have now been resolved with RTM and in today’s article I will share with you my step by step guide in setting up the User Profile Service application, focusing on its configuration and administration and how we can...

In my last article I provided you with a guide in setting up your SharePoint 2010 farm providing it with the capabilities in receiving incoming email which can then be delivered directly to your SharePoint libraries and or lists.  Today we wrap up our 2 part series on email flow in SharePoint 2010 in which I will provide you with another step by step guide in configuring your SharePoint Farm in order for it to send outgoing emails through your Microsoft Exchange server. The environment This article builds on the SharePoint Farm setup that I have documented here. It consists of the following servers...

Today we continue down our journey in setting up our SharePoint 2010 farm, with the focus on configuring incoming email for SharePoint 2010.  When SharePoint 2007 was released, there was a lot of discussion and rumors around Exchange 2007 being the last version of Exchange to provide Public Folder support, and that SharePoint 2007 was going to be it’s alternative. Microsoft quickly changed its stance and continues to support Public folders in Exchange 2010.  However, there still might be a number of compelling reasons why you would want to consider storing incoming email messages in SharePoint...

SharePoint 2010 is definitely generating a lot of buzz out there in the community, especially amongst partners and customers and with the official launch only a day away, I thought it would be ideal to update my installation which I first blogged about here using all the RTM bits.  For those of you that aren’t aware, SharePoint 2010 and SQL 2008 R2 are now available for download via TechNet or MSDN and will be available to Volume Licensing customers post launch, 12 May 2010. The below setup will be based on SharePoint 2007 best practices and SharePoint 2010 TechNet documentation on “proposed”...

Welcome back to the second article in this series on upgrading a SharePoint 2007 content database to SharePoint 2010.  In part 1 we deep dived into the preupgrade tool that Microsoft made available with SharePoint 2007 SP2 and today we will complete our upgrade journey utilising one of the 3 upgrade models that are available to you by Microsoft.  These are listed as follows; In-place upgrade Database attach upgrade to a new farm Hybrid approach (Read –only databases or Detach databases) There is a wealth of information regarding these different approaches on the Microsoft TechNet site under the...

I’m sure there are a lot of SharePointers out there who are excited about the 2010 release and as I have been working my way through the installation and configuration of this updated beast, I have also been providing you with posts along the way sharing my experiences.  Today isn’t any different, and in this two part series I will be providing you with a guide to upgrading your SharePoint 2007 content databases to SharePoint 2010.  There are already some great resources out there regarding upgrade options and preparation guidance including those from Microsoft on the TechNet Site and others...